The Scariest Fictional Character

Big Brother from George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 has been voted the scariest character in literature in a worldwide poll conducted by AbeBooks.

With the increased use of closed circuit TV, phone tapping, GPS tracking from space and online monitoring, booklovers clearly believe Big Brother is more threatening than ever. Published in 1949, Orwell’s dystopian nightmare mirrored the totalitarianism of Hitler and Stalin. Big Brother is rated as scarier than classic evil creations like Bill Sykes, the vicious Victorian thug created by Charles Dickens, and Hannibal the Cannibal from the modern publishing era.

1. Big Brother from 1984 by George Orwell
2. Hannibal Lecter from the novels by Thomas Harris
3. Pennywise the clown from It by Stephen King
4. Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
5. Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel
6. Annie Wilkes from Misery by Stephen King
7. The demon from The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
8. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
9. Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
10. Voldemort from the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling

Who do you think is the scariest?

Michael Huber

10 Responses

Big Brother is a great choice, though I sometimes get chills thinking about the red-eyed pig-headed creature from “Amityville Horror,” which I read at the tender age of 12, who showed up at the window at 3:15 in the morning — especially when I wake up in the middle of the night and the whole house is quiet.

The scariest fictional figure in history has to be the god creature of the bible and quoran. A creature that has at times has been portayed as taking the lives of all creatures on Earth, save a few chosen ones. A creature that has killed the innocent fist born as a punishment of the parents rulers. A creature so vile that it condemns an individual to an eternity in the fires of hell for the crime of not sucking up to this god’s vanity by worshipping it in a highly proscribed manner. I defy anyone to produce a more vile and scary fictional character.

Of Course I will say that Voldemort is number one in my book!!! The opening scene in Deathly Hallows where he hovers his unfortunate victim over the table of onlookers sends chills up my spine! Alas, he is a character that has never known love…Unbelievably scary!

[…] literary characters! October 23, 2007 at 8:20 pm by Kristin In the true spirit of Halloween, Mike Janairo the Times Union Book blogger has posted a recent world wide poll by Abebooks.com that features the […]

I think insanity can be a frightening nemesis in literature. I am currently reading the memoir Girl, Interrupted by Susana Kaysen and she tells some frightening tales about the discombobulated lives of young women in a state mental hospital during the late 60s. Among some of the horror stories: a girl who douses herself with gasoline and sets herself on fire; attempting suicide just to “kill” a vague fascination with death; the isolation–both figurative and literal–of the girls on the psych ward and how they pass their days and nights. Kaysen admits to feeling insulated and protected in the hospital and this takes away some of the shock of her portrayal of madness. But other novels like Slaughter House Five and the poem Howl involve protagonists who are wrestling with insanity in the confusing and alienating backdrop of the real world. This is where loss of touch with reality can prove the most unforgiving and destructive.